Ancestral Work

A JOURNEY OF COURAGE AND LOVE

Dialogue with the Ancestors Walk into any home, anywhere in the world, and you are likely to see an ancestor altar. You might see a shrine with precious objects or a wall of photos of loved ones. In Peruvian mountain villages, likely you will find a line-up of skulls of beloved relatives. In Mexico, on el Dia del los Muertos, you could picnic and play on ancestral grave sites as you celebrate the lives of those who have passed.

In complex Western society, this dialog with the ancestors has been silenced. Because of our remarkable freedom of movement and economic opportunity, we often grow up far away from our extended families. We don’t know our people — our clan.

Coming to Terms with the Past We have much to learn from remaining village cultures and the “Old Traditions.” Addressing ancestral themes, appreciating the gifts of those whose shoulders we stand upon, and seeing how they failed, allows us to be honest about the human condition. Not all sweetness and light, this ancestral work also encompasses a coming-to-terms with abuse and trauma. Integrating what went right with what went wrong in the past supports us to break free of a one-sided glamorization OR demonizing of our ancestors. When we honor this “full catastrophe” of our ancestry, our homelands, and our clan’s journey to this time, we can make peace with where we have landed in the present.

Freedom from Ancestral CursesWe discover and honor the ancestors who live within us. In some indigenous traditions, these patterns are called lineage curses, and they are the mental habits, beliefs and projections that are passed down from generation to generation. When our family relations are embedded in our Luminous Body in this way, they hold the programs of our ancestral themes. They can feel very alive and powerfully destructive within us.

With the help of shamanic healing practices, we release the way we have held wounded or traumatic relationships and heal how these themes have kept us captive in family patterns. When we de-program, we can become available to our gifts and to life as a fresh and curious expression of our safe hearts. We drain the momentum of our karmic and genetic inheritance. We heal our lineage of its historical momentum and free ourselves to act from a deep sense of ease and stillness.

This journey is an act of power, courage and love. Every Rising Fire student is supported through this passage to freedom. The processes we use in ancestral work include shamanic journey, energy extractions, storytelling, sacred drama, breath work, fire ceremony and rites of passage.